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Health & wellness

Find the answers to life’s stress tests

Stress is normal. It’s how you handle it that’s important

Cori Barker, sitting, practices Thai massage on one of his instructors about two years ago when he was attending the Berkana Institute of Massage Therapy. Barker, 32, worked for an engineering firm for four years after graduating from the Colorado School of Mines, but realized he wasn’t leading a healthy lifestyle — this prompted him to become a massage therapist, and he opened Reworks Massage (and Tech) on 16th Street Mall last fall.

Courtesy photo

Posted
Monday, April 3, 2017 3:01 pm

More tips to manage stress

Here are a few more tips to manage stress:

• Stay connected to your social network. Allot time to spend with friends and loved ones.

• Ask for help when life becomes overwhelming. Seek advice from clinicians or others you trust.

• Maintain a positive outlook. Don’t get caught up by the negative effects of something that didn’t go exactly as planned.

• Help another person manage his stress.

• Make time to enjoy favorite leisure activities. Join a class or program offered through community resources, such as the library or rec center.

• Go outside — being outside allows a person to take in nature’s smells and calming sounds.

• Break things down into smaller, more manageable steps.

Sources: Shannon Gwash of Jefferson Center for Mental Health,

Mindfulness a key way to decompress

Mindfulness is a technique to manage stressors that not everyone pursues, said Tripti Sharma of the Community Reach Center.

But mindfulness can help us access reason or logic to better manage stressors, she said.

“Mindfulness,” as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, “means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.”

Stress can be caused by worrying about something in the past that cannot be changed, or something in the future that can’t be controlled, said Shannon Gwash of the Jefferson Center for Mental Health.

But “mindfulness causes us to be in the moment,” she said.

There’s a common saying associated with mindfulness, said Cori Barker, a massage therapist and owner of Reworks Massage (and Tech) on 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.

Practicing mindfulness isn’t always easy, Barker said, and everybody has a different way of accomplishing it. For some, it may be joining a Zen group, for others, doing a few yoga poses.

Massage therapy can also help a person achieve mindfulness, Barker said. His hope, he said, is that no one is thinking about their to-do list while on his table.

Do-it-yourselfers can also practice mindfulness with touch therapy, Barker said. He suggests starting with the toes and working your way up.

“The fun part about the experience is figuring out what works for you,” Barker said. “There’s no promise that everything will be rainbows and sunshine afterwards, but you will gain a better perspective on handling life’s dramas.”

After Cori Barker earned his degree from the Colorado School of Mines, he landed a job with an engineering firm.

He enjoyed the job, but the work was stressful, often finding it difficult to meet a client’s expectations. And his off time was filled with monotonous routine — a PB&J sandwich for a quick dinner, and some TV or video games to unwind a bit before bed.

Barker lived this way for four years — poor diet, lack of sleep and little exercise. Admittedly, he did not allow time for self-care.

“I didn’t have the maturity to value my personal health,” Barker, 32, said. “But I couldn’t imagine a different lifestyle.”

The one thing he did do for himself, both as a student and engineering professional, was get a massage about once a year to help relax. And this is what led him to the path he is on today — a massage therapist living a content and mindful lifestyle.

Having some degree of stress is normal — and not all stress is bad, health experts agree. But too much stress can lead to common illnesses because of a compromised immune system or more serious diagnoses of anxiety or depression.

“Stressors can really knock us out of our normal routine,” said Tripti Sharma, a therapist who teaches a mental health first aid class at Community Reach Center, a nonprofit that provides mental health care and other health services at multiple sites throughout Adams County. “How you handle it is what’s important.”

Shannon Gwash, director of wellness programs and services for Jefferson Center for Mental Health, says the term “eustress” refers to what mental health experts consider positive, healthy stress. It can be thought of as a motivator because that kind of stress keeps people working toward a goal or pushes a person to excel.

Distress — the stress associated with being stressed out — is when life starts to become too overwhelming, Gwash said.

There is no definitive threshold between the two, Gwash said, because people have different triggers that can cause distress. However, to distinguish between the two, Gwash suggests asking this question: Are you progressing toward that goal, or are you falling behind because you’re taking on too much?

“It’s hard to take a step back,” Gwash said, “but it’s necessary.”

In addition, stress can be situational or chronic, Sharma said.

Situational can include a death in the family to a big test coming up. Chronic stress is generally ongoing and long-term. For example, it could be environmental, such as living in an abusive home.

For most people, the best way to handle stress, Gwash said, is to recognize and acknowledge when you’re taking on too much.

“Everyone gets stressed out, but it’s not always because of the same things,” she said. “Be aware of what works for you. Sometimes, too busy is not good. It’s good for us to have downtime, and it’s good for us to have those healthy boundaries.”